Read Online Hostage by Karen Tayleur - Free Book Online

lunchtime. It wasn’t a huge school. But it was nice. Nice having someone show me around instead of just trying to remember where everything was from my school tour.
    Amanda was into pink, so that got to be my favourite colour too. She had this way of laughing that kind of ended on a hiccup. I practised to get it right. I learned to dot my i’s with a curly flower just like she did. She always gave me money at recess for tuck shop and I taught her how to swear in Greek.
    Every Saturday, Amanda would come to my place and we’d hang out. The place was a dump—it was officially on the dump side of town, on the pub side of the main road—but it had a great garden. Our house perched at the top of a huge block and our back garden bordered a creek. We loved that creek. Every Saturday morning Mum would tell us to stay away from it. By lunchtime, Amanda and I would have our shoes off and our jeans rolled up to our knees.
    The willow trees along the creek were the perfect hideout. Amanda’s dad hated willows. He said they were vermin and sucked up all the water that our native plants could have been using. Where he worked at the council they’d even printed a brochure about it to get people on their side. So Amanda and I never told him about the willows near my place. We didn’t want him to come and cut down our trees that hung like green curtains down to the ground. We moved rocks under the trees and made them our furniture. We’d sit for hours and talk about what we’d do when we were older. We were going to see the pyramids and Disneyland and visit a Greek island and try out our swear words.
    On my birthday, when I turned nine, Amanda gave me a tiny oval jewellery box. On the lid was a cute teddy. Inside was a guardian angel pin that had my birthstone in its stomach. ‘To keep you safe,’ said Amanda. I told her it was the best present I had ever got. We buried the box under the willows to protect our special place when we couldn’t be there.
    Every Thursday I went to Amanda’s after school because Mum had the dinner shift at the pub. It was my favourite day of the week. Sometimes I even stayed the night on a mattress on the floor next to Amanda if it got to be too late.
    At school, Amanda and I were pet monitors. Our class had a pair of budgies called Spot and Bluey and a fish tank with a hermit crab whose name was George. Every morning, Amanda and I could go into class early to feed the animals. It made me feel important walking past the hall monitors with Amanda giggling at my side.
    So there we were BFFL—best friends for life.
    But then one Thursday Amanda’s mum got a call after dinner. It was Mum asking her if she would drop me home. Amanda couldn’t come with me. She had to stay at home and brush her teeth because it was her bedtime. I remember saying something like, don’t forget to bring your glitter pens to school tomorrow. We were in the middle of a huge assignment and had only half-finished our cover sheet.
    I remember talking to Amanda’s mum all the way home about nothing much in particular. She kept smiling at me but, I recalled much later, that her smile didn’t seem to reach her eyes.
    ‘Tell Sandy to give me a call,’ she said as I got out of her car.
    I got inside to find Mum packing. My bag was already packed and standing near the door. I turned on the hall light.
    ‘Turn it off,’ said Mum.
    I turned it off and light spilled into the room from the kitchen.
    I grabbed my bag and started to unpack.
    ‘Tully, what are you doing?’ asked Mum.
    I just shook my head.
    ‘Tully?’
    ‘No,’ I said.
    ‘I’m sorry, Pumpkin, but we have to go—’
    ‘You go. I’m not going.’ I took my shoes and put them back at the foot of my bed. They looked so right there. I lined them up perfectly against each other.
    ‘Tully, we don’t have time for this,’ Mum called out. ‘Come in here and help.’ I went back to find her shoving a shampoo bottle in with a box of food.
    ‘I can go to